How the Icon Outlet at The O2 completes the regeneration of the Millennium Dome

The Icon Outlet will complete the doughnut of space around The O2 arena,” said Alistair Wood.

Talking to the executive vice president real estate and development at AEG Europe ahead of its shopping district launch next week, it’s clear expectations are big.

Icon Outlet is set to open to the public on October 20, two days after its ribbons are cut by deputy Mayor Of London for business Rajesh Agrawal.

It promises designer brands at discount prices with around 50 stores in place for the launch of phase one and a further 30 coming in phase two in 2019.

There will be a host of services intended to appeal to those visiting the venue – hands free shopping, next-day delivery to a home or office, bag drop and shopping drop facilities.

For Alistair it’s much more than a standalone attraction, however. It’s the completion of the redevelopment of the Millennium Dome – a project he’s been involved with since 2004.

“As part of our first phase of investment in The O2, AEG built about 1.2million sq ft of space,” he said.

“That was anchored around The O2 arena and then we built an entertainment district to supplement that.

“Simplistically the arena sits in the middle of what was the Dome and it only takes about 40% of the footprint of the building.

“The entertainment district wrapped round about 180 degrees of that and the Icon will constitute the other 180 degrees.

“Along with the cinema and leisure extension we’re building at the moment, that will complete our redevelopment.”

In addition to the creation of the outlet centre, the final tranche of work inside the tent will see Cineworld’s screen count will swell by eight to 19 and a 30,000sq ft trampoline park – Oxygen Freejumping (opening October 22) – all delivered as a joint venture with Crosstree.

“It’s been a bit of a journey,” said Alistair.

“We have 9million visitors to The O2 a year at the moment and we’ve always wanted to increase that.

“When we looked at concepts for this space, we’ve always asked what can we do to diversify the footfall?

“What is London missing?

“We saw a massive opportunity to deliver an urban outlet.

“Conventionally, outlet villages have always been 40 or 50 miles outside of cities.

“With the advent of the internet, the dynamics of retail have changed.

“We saw a massive opportunity to build something London doesn’t have.

“We think it’s a very different offer to other sites in the capital.

“It’s designer brands at discount prices.

“We’ll be having about 80 stores in total and the first phase, about 50 of those units and the second phase will be around the start of the second quarter, 2019.”

The addition of shopping to the various attractions already in place at The O2 was always on the cards.

“If you look at the projects that AEG have done globally, we’ve always focussed on big regeneration schemes,” said Alistair, 44.

“You take a distressed piece of land with fantastic public transport connections – a great example being downtown Los Angeles – we bought 400 acres of land there.

“In Berlin we’ve bought got 90 acres out there and launch Mercedes Platz on October 13 next to the Mercedes-Benz Arena.

“The Millennium Dome had very similar characteristics to these sites.

“You take that asset and you use the arena to act as the catalyst for the regeneration of the whole site.

“It’s always been our objective here to continue growing The O2 as a destination.

“When the arena opened that was a big draw, but what you saw were flash floods of people in, but also flash floods of people out the minute the show’s finished.

“We’ve added Up At The O2, a daytime attraction bringing about 110,000 visitors a year.

“Now the Cineworld extension will make it the biggest cinema in London by some distance – so we’ll be looking to bring premieres down to The O2 with the extra eight screens.

“Then you’ve got Oxygen Freejumping. Having the retail there will help us with linked trips.

“We’ve spent a lot of time and money and focus on creating a fantastic experience.

“Shoppers have myriad choices both in the physical and online environments.

“The great asset we have is that the tent itself is our calling card.

“We’ve spent a lot of money on lighting and ceiling finishes. We’ve really tried to create something exciting for the customer.

“The challenge for physical retail is that everything will go online.

“We don’t subscribe to that view. We believe people still like congregation.

“You can see that in people coming here.

“Having The Intercontinental London – The O2 has been a big thing for us too.

“We’re trying to make the whole venue a destination.

“Do the roof walk before the show – stay in the hotel for the weekend, see a show and do some shopping and the cable car.”

Alistair Wood

A further attraction to come will be the arrival of Mamma Mia! The Party.

“It’s due to open September next year – we’re really excited about that,” said Alistair.

“It’s a blend of a show and a dining experience.

“They have an existing offering in Stockholm.

“Here, Rhubarb will do the catering – you get some great food, sing a few Abba songs as you go through and then it evolves into a disco.

“By the end of the night you have people dancing on the tables.”

Far from divisive, however, AEG intends The O2’s multitude of attractions are complementary rather than competitive.

“The opening has been a long road for us,” said Alistair.

“It was first mentioned to our owner in 2007 but it’s by no means the end for us.

“We’re going to continue to develop the offering with loyalty schemes, the promotion of linked trips.

“We have fantastic access to the customer – we send out emails to people before they come helping them plan their journey, for example.

“We’re trying to make all the different components of the scheme sing together and to make it as enjoyable as possible for the customer to participate in.

“There will be some live music too in the Icon and we do these big site-wide events such as the Country To Country music festival and with the retail now here there’s an opportunity to drive that on.

“We call it our cornerstone content strategy.

“That’s our objective.

“We want this to be the world’s leading retail and leisure destination.”

One of the key pillars of east London’s growth, Alistair was keen to stress The O2’s development was complementary to rather than in competition with any of the other areas of local regeneration.

“East London is growing at such a rate and this is a big part of that,” he said.

“We’re in a joint venture with Crosstree for everything outside the arena in The O2, including the Icon so we’re delivering the regeneration inside.

“Knight Dragon is delivering the regeneration on the rest of the Peninsula.

“It’s really, really complementary.

“When you show people around The O2 during the daytime they’re always surprised by the number of people who are around now.

“It’s becoming a real community in its own right.

“As Knight Dragon hand over more and more flats, that’s more and more residents who are using the cinema, the bars and the restaurants.

“We don’t see it in any way in competition with Canary Wharf or Royal Docks.

“Docklands is growing together.

“When we first took on the Dome, we took offices in the Citi tower in Canary Wharf and even since then, back in 2003, to watch the way that area has grown and now with Wood Wharf and other areas like Royal Docks and Stratford, this whole side of London is a massively positive story.

“We also own the MBNA Thames Clippers and we see that as a big part of the attraction for Icon as well.

“Can we get tourists to jump on a boat at the London Eye and float down the river and come and do some shopping and see a show at The O2?”

Having already been the world’s most popular entertainment venue for more than a decade, there’s little reason to suppose this latest venture won’t add to the draw.